Aaron Siego of KDE: "It would be very nice if our X server could use OpenGL directly for its display and composition. Because then we could have hardware accelerated effects that are not only cool looking, but also very useful. Well, there is just such a project underway, called XGL. But don't hold your breath. The development of XGL has been largely removed from the community and is being done behind closed doors. Who is this company, you ask, that would take the development of something as potentially important as this out of the community and put it behind closed doors? Novell."

I don't know if you're giving enough weight to the political friction surrounding XGL. "In the open", there was massive resistance to getting anything done with it. From the very first step, convincing people that 2D was doable via OpenGL at all, it was an uphill battle. If Novell decided to sod it all, and go and just write it and see what happens, I don't think you can blame them.